The present invention relates to grass cutting machinery, and to attachments for use with such machinery.
It is common knowledge that conventional lawn mowers cannot achieve a satisfactory cut of a lawn that is covered in dew. This is a particularly troublesome and inconvenient problem facing grounds men who are required to mow golf greens early in the morning, before the greens can dry out. Since wet greens cannot be mowed directly with conventional lawn mowers, a common approach is to manually wipe the moisture off the green using a very long flexible cane which is switched across the turf. This pre-mowing operation is of course hard work and time consuming, and makes cutting the greens a two-stage process.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide means for cutting dew covered grass, without requiring separate prior preparation of the grass.
Accordingly, the present invention provides grass cutting machinery comprising a grass cutting element and means for creating a flow of air to dislodge water droplets from grass, prior to cutting.
In one embodiment of the present invention, blower means creates the flow of air. Preferably, the blower means comprises nozzle means positioned in advance of the grass cutting element. In use, the blower means dislodges water droplets from grass by blowing the droplets off the grass.
In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, suction means creates the flow of air. Preferably, the suction means comprises nozzles means positioned in advance of the cutting element. In use the suction means dislodges water droplets by sucking the droplets off the grass.